Rochester man sentenced on child pornography offense

CONCORD — A Rochester man has been sentenced to 78 months in prison and 10 years of supervised released after pleading guilty to one count of possession of child pornography this past summer.

David Earle Barker, 40, previously of the Northgate Apartments in Rochester, pleaded guilty in July 2012 following his arrest in February 2011 to the charge. The New Hampshire Department of Justice reported at the time of Barker’s arrest, several computers, DVDs and CDs were seized which upon examination, contained several thousand images depicting the sexual assault of young children.

On Tuesday, Barker appeared before U.S. District Court for the district of New Hampshire in Concord to receive his final sentencing.

Foster’s reported in February 2011 the images included children ranging from infancy to their teen years in explicit sexual acts as well as a pair of soiled child-sized underpants. The suspect reportedly lived alone at that time.

The state department reports its investigation into Barker’s activities began in 2010, when a lead was sent to the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) from the Canadian Internet Child Exploitation Unit in Saskatchewan.

An undercover officer there had seen images of child pornography being shared by an online user in the Rochester area, according to a Department of Justice press release. Shortly thereafter, the New Hampshire ICAC received a similar lead from a detective in Hinesville, Georgia.

The case was referred for federal prosecution and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division became the lead investigative agency for this case, according to the Department of Justice.

This prosecution was reportedly brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative of the United States Department of Justice aimed at combating the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Helen White Fitzgibbon.